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Thursday, November 5, 2009

Bells Will Be Ringing, Choirs Will Be Singing

HSO’s Holiday POPS! Spectacular and Edward Cumming

with Santa Claus. (Photo Steve Laschever)

The Hartford Symphony Orchestra will celebrate “the most wonderful time of the year” at the 2009 Holiday POPS! Spectacular at The Bushnell on Friday, Dec. 11 at 8 pm and on Saturday, Dec. 12 at 3 pm and 8 pm at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts.

Joining in the wintry celebration will be singers from the Hartford Chorale and Connecticut Children’s Chorus, as well as ballet dancers from the Hartt Community Division. The 2009-2010 POPS! Series is presented by United Technologies Corporation.

Festive carols and seasonal favorites will be performed by the HSO and the Hartford Chorale and ballerinas from the Hartt Community Division will twirl onto the stage for selections from The Nutcracker. The Connecticut Children’s Chorus will join in the festivities for a holiday sing-along, as arranged by Hartt School Musical Theater Director Michael Morris. There will even be a special guest appearance from one of the world’s biggest celebrities – Santa Claus – in his musical debut with the HSO.

“We are excited to bring our annual Holiday POPS! Spectacular to the Belding Theater this year,” said HSO Executive Director Kristen Phillips. “The intimate setting of this theater will surround our audience with the sights and sounds of this holiday winter wonderland.”

Ticket Prices range from $12.50 to $72.50 and are available in person Monday through Friday between the hours of 10 am and 5 pm at Hartford Symphony Orchestra Ticket Services, 99 Pratt St., Suite 500 in Hartford, or by calling (860) 244-2999, or online at http://www.hartfordsymphony.org/.

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My Bio

Lauren Yarger is a theater reviewer in New York and Connecticut. She is former Second Vice President of the Drama Desk and a voting member of the Drama Desk and of The Outer Critics Circle, for which she serves as Event Manager for the annual awards dinner.

She is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, the Connecticut Critics Circle and is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women, serving as Founder of its Connecticut Chapter.

A playwright, Yarger has written, directed and produced numerous shows and special events for both secular and Christian audiences. She co-wrote a Christian musical version of A Christmas Carol which played to sold-out audiences of over 3,000 in Vermont and was awarded the 2000 Vermont Bessie (theater and film awards) for “People’s Choice for Theatre.”

Yarger trained for three years in the BroadwayLeague’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Three-Day Training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadwayrun.

She was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'NeillTheater Center in Waterford, CT.

Formerly she was a theater reviewer for the CT Manchester Journal-Inquirer and was Connecticut theater editor

for CurtainUp.com . She was a Connecticut and New York reviewer for American Theater Web. Yarger is a book reviewer and writer for Publishers Weekly and freelances for other sites. She is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

She served as a judge for the SDX Awards presentedby the Society of Professional Journalists. She also served as a member of the Connecticut Critics Circle awards committee.

A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger also worked in arts management for the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts,the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and served for nine years as the Executive Director of Masterwork Productions, Inc. She lives with her husband in West Granby, CT. They have two adult children.